I've created a new Wiki for NES hacking. I've written up a couple guides that show you the basics of finding memory variables in NES games and added
memory offsets for several games. I'll migrate the rest of my old hacking page into it over time and then the text tables.

Well it's enough to make you sick

Feeling: Sick

2010/02/24

It turns out that the sore throat I had from practicing my thrash metal vocals was actually the beginning of a cold. On Monday I was feeling like crap, so I took a sick day yesterday. I'm feeling a lot better today,
but I'm still taking a box of tissues where ever I go. I made it through all of 2009 without getting sick, and thanks to my newly trained immune system, I expect to get to 2011 before I get sick again.

The legal system of Milan, Italy has just proven their ignorance. Back in 2006, someone posted a video of a boy with Down syndrome being abused. Google video took down the video as soon as it was flagged, but Vivi
Down, an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome, demanded punishment. Rather than work with Google to find the people who uploaded the video, charges were filed against Google's CEOs, and just recently, the Milan
courts found them guilty of criminal charges! This is entirely the wrong thing to do. Unless we want to have an Internet where everything must be
measured for content before it's posted, this useless ruling can't happen. It would be like if I mailed you a letter bomb, and then the head of the United States Postal Service went to jail.

Speaking of disabled children--want to commit professional suicide? Why not say that disabled children are God's punishment to women who previously had abortions! That is what
Bob Marshall said. This is in direct contrast to Angie the Anti-Theist who is blogging about
the entire process of her abortion.

One of the reasons I have such a huge man-crush on Hugh Laurie is because he's an amazing actor. When you see him as House, he's a total prick and very imposing. However, when you see him as Hugh, he's his old timid
and sweet self. You can see what I mean as he and Ellen Degeneres quiz each other on their own culture's slang.

New information has come out on that 16-year-old boy who was suspended from school after the school took pictures of him without anyone's knowledge using the webcam on his school-issued laptop. In a story that MSNBC is
now calling "WebcamGate" (A "gate" suffix? Wow, that's never been done before). It turns out that the boy was eating candy, when the school took the snap shot, and they
confused that with taking drugs!

Want to clean up some hard drive space? Check out Duplicate Files Finder. It's an application that will check your hard drive for duplicate files and help you delete them.

If you, or anyone you know, is attending Harriton Senior High School, PA, and are using a school-issued laptop, TURN IT OFF! The school installs spyware on their laptops that allows school administrators to remotely
activate the laptop's camera to monitor you! Recently, the school issued a reprimand to a student for
"improper behavior in his home". They took pictures of him from his laptop to use as evidence. The school admits to installing and using their spyware, but they don't believe that they are doing anything wrong. I really
hope this school receives massive disciplinary action. What would stop the school from taking pictures or video of their students while they were changing in their bedroom?

The state of Arizona has decided that the first amendment to the Constitution isn't important, and they should operate under the ideal of "majority rules". They've decided to require their government to erect a
monument to the ten commandments in front of the old state Capitol. Senator Russell Pearce said, and this would be hilarious if he
didn't have so much power, it's wrong to think of the Ten Commandments as "religious". Of course, the very first commandment says that all people must worship the Christian God Yahweh, and no others. Apparently, Pearce is
so incredibly retarded, he can't see how that is religious in nature. He went on to say that if everyone followed the ten commandments, what a better place this would be. Sure, being executed for working on the Sabbath
would only make this world a better place. Senator Sylvia Allen said that she "[doesn't] know why it would be that offensive." Here's why it's offensive Allen, the punishment listed for breaking the first commandment is
execution! You're placing a monument on the government capitol implying that you're perfectly okay with murdering anyone who doesn't believe in the same invisible man in the sky as you. Furthermore, only three of the
ten commandments are actually illegal in the USA: murder, stealing, and lying (while under oath).

Microsoft and Yahoo finally got the green light to team up to compete with Google.

Hacking notes have been added for Kung Fu. Notes allow for infinite energy and time.

Steve Jobs made a bold statement saying that Flash is dying. This is news to the Internet which continues to
use Flash more and more. In fact, one of the primary criticisms that people have for the iPhone and iPad is that they don't support Flash. Jobs seems to believe that he will kill Flash the way he killed floppy disks.
First of all, Apple doesn't kill anything. They don't have enough clout to alter the PC market. Second, software doesn't die. Unlike hardware, which requires a manufacturer to perpetually make replacements, software
exists forever. I think Flash is garbage too, but until someone comes along with something that is both better and easier to use (sorry Microsoft, Silverlight doesn't count), Flash isn't going anywhere.

Blame Adobe's crappy Acrobat and Reader programs for allowing the majority of Internet exploits for
the past year. I picked up some malware from a PDF file myself. If you have an Adobe plug-in for your web browser, now would be a good time to disable it. Try Foxit's
PDF viewer instead. It's a lot faster than Adobe Reader and it doesn't nag you all the time.

It's amazing what the FDA finds when it's allowed to look at herbal supplements. Lead and arsenic are awfully
common.

Rocky Horror Picture Show is over and done. It feels weird knowing that I'll won't be spending my evenings rushing to rehearsal and staying up into the wee hours of the morning with the cast. I have a lot of fond
memories of the production, and a lot of pictures that I will post tomorrow.

In case you haven't heard, Obama is trying to get the US military to get rid of the bigoted "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. I fully agree and think the policy has no business in modern society. Granted, if the policy
is removed, I'll have to do more than hum a few bars of "The Sound of Music" to protect myself from being used as cannon fodder to lower gas prices, but I'm willing to take that risk. There are, of course, plenty of
dissenting views from closed-minded slack-jawed rednecks, none of which are valid. One argument is that soldiers won't feel comfortable if they receive unwanted ogling from other men. Welcome to the life of every woman
ever. If not that, there's always the, "God hates dem queers!" argument. However, my favorite argument comes from Republican Roy Blunt. He thinks that getting rid of "don't ask don't tell" will make our soldiers a
bigger target for terrorists! The argument works like this: Sure, our military assault on Muslims is an affront to their culture, religion, and very lives,
but now we've got homos shooting at them too, so they'll be especially willing to blow themselves up. That's logic.

Speaking of slack-jawed rednecks, the "great" state of Texas has, once again, made me lose faith in both humanity and the legal system. I'm surprised their nurses didn't strike
after what happened. The nurses in questions have been acquitted, but it doesn't look like
anything is going to happen to the quack Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr., the corrupt Sheriff Robert L. Roberts Jr., or the pathetic county attorney Scott M. Tidwell. All three men totally have a hard-on for each other, and
had no business being part of the same case together.

What kind of world are we living in when people still believe that rape victims deserve to be raped?

Ever play a Flash game that involves a villain called the Sperminator who has penises for arms and shoots evil semen at you and you have to answer trivia
questions about STDs? Yeah, it's awesome!

Have you ever heard the useless religious argument, "if people don't believe in a vindictive punishing God, then what would stop them from murdering and raping everyone?" Research proves their argument is
invalid.

It's amazing how easily flu-shot-induced-dsytonia can be cured, all it takes is a hidden camera!

Those Islamic head scarves hide more than just a woman's face, they also hide beards. Luckily, you can always get an annulment! Joining of souls indeed!

Apple tried to convince us all that they weren't evil by getting rid of DRM on iTunes, but their new iBook store will open DRM
intactus.

Yes Dr. Scott! A laser capable of emitting a beam of pure anti-matter!

Tonight is the last dress rehearsal for Rocky Horror Picture Show before we go live! Soooo excited!

Yes Dr. Scott! A laser capable of emitting a beam of pure anti-matter!

Feeling: Cheery

2010/02/10

The Federal Appeals court just single-handedly destroyed Internet free speech. They upheld a ruling which gives
prosecutors the legal right to bring up charges on any person who puts something on the Internet that any community in the country deems illegal. The case involved pornography, but it applies to everything on the
Internet. Here's how it will work--let's say that I created a web page that criticized congress, and everyone in the country is perfectly okay with my web page except a small town called Hicksville in Florida. Well,
thanks to this new ruling, the hicks of Hicksville can prosecute me because someone in their town viewed my web site. First of all, if you don't like what I put on the Internet, DON'T LOOK AT IT! It's not like the
Internet is forcing itself down your throat, you have to actively work to view it! Second, it is impossible to block Internet traffic down to a city level, or even a state level! Internet traffic can be rerouted so easily
that even an amateur in Georgia can surf the web and have everyone think he's from Japan. This ruling will most likely be appealed to the Supreme Court, but it's insulting to our country's freedom to see it get this far.

Speaking of putting things on the Internet that some US cities may deem illegal, Abram and Sarai make it to Egypt in the Blasphemer's Bible.

Today at work, I had to fix a client's computer, but it wasn't logged in, and nobody on site knew the password. So, employing my expert hacking skills taught to me by a Tibetan monk, I guessed "password", and I was
right.

Utah passed a bill that allows women to receive an ultrasound in order to hear their baby's heartbeat before getting an
abortion. The purpose of this bill, whether Utah lawmakers will admit to it or not, is to guilt women out of abortions. However, I'm actually okay with that aspect of the bill. The stupidity of the bill comes from the
fact that the ultrasound is allowed as early as three weeks into their pregnancy. At three weeks there is no baby, there isn't even a fetus. There is a millimeter long embryo composed of stem cells. No heart is present,
therefore, no heartbeat could possibly be detected. The heart doesn't form and begin beating until around week six.

It's always fun to see stuff about evolution from the UK, where the majority of the people believe in it. Here is a game show where contestants comedic
ally argue topics. When evolution was brought up, even the against side had a hard time creating a valid argument.

Winter is a lot colder when you shave your beard. Since the character I'll be playing (Riff Raff) lacks facial hair, I had to trim away my beard. I don't like the way I look without facial hair, but at least I had some
fun with chronicling all the various styles I'd never normally wear. Check out my incremental steps:
lumberjack, the redneck, the biker,
cop stache, sexy cop, hoity toity,
the Hitler, the dork.

I had a dream this morning that closely resembled the movie Cloverfield, which is odd because I haven't even thought about the movie in over a year. Also, the monster looked like a giant
tapir.

Rehearsal lasted for about six hours on Sunday, but it was totally worth it. We began by painting set pieces, took a two hour break, played some de-virginzing games, and did a full movie run through and then some
dance recaps. It went a lot smoother, and everything is pulling together; we're on track to have an amazing show!

I've added hacking notes for 8 Eyes and Battletoads to the NES hacking page. For each game you can get infinite hit points and infinite lives, among other things.

Ever write down quiz answers on your hand and then get caught cheating? So did Sarah Palin.

By the light of the night, it'll all be all right. I'll get you a Hispanic mechanic!

Feeling: Happy

2010/02/05

I almost bricked my MP3 player last night by dropping it. When I picked it up and checked to see if it was ok, I got a solid white screen. The backlight still worked, and the D-pad still affected it, but I wasn't
getting any display. I opened it up, reset the leads to the LCD, and got it working again. Phew! It currently has a duct tape patch job all around the edges. I really need to replace it soon.

This morning's environment report on NPR talked about ancient trees being cut down to make toilet paper. The reporter mentioned that the trees had been around before the time of Jesus and Moses. I understand that the
purpose of using those characters was to impress some awe at how old the trees were, but the point is quite invalid. First of all, there is little proof that Jesus ever existed, and even less for Moses. Secondly, if they
did exist, we don't really know when they were born, Moses especially. To understand my point more clearly, replace the biblical figures with other figures from mythology that also probably didn't exist. For
example, the trees are older than Hercules and Achilles, or the trees are older than Mother Goose and Jack and Jill. See, it's pretty ridiculous.

An equality bill in the UK was shot down. The purpose of the bill was to stop UK
churches from discriminating against homosexuals and transgender people, but churches will continue to ban anyone who doesn't meet their straight-sexual orientation mandate. This is entirely unfair, since, in the UK,
churches are sponsored by the government, and therefore should obey the will of the people. It only took the words of Pope Benedict "Darth Sidious" XVI to stop the bill from going through because he said that homosexuals
go against the "natural law". Listen folks, the pope wears a black dress with a pink beanie and never has sex. Do you really think you should trust him to explain the "natural law" of sex?

I've added some Super Mario Bros. 3 hacking notes. With the info you can have infinite lives, infinite time, put any item in your inventory, keep any item in your
inventory, and never lose your power-ups.

Rehearsal went well last night. It's great to work on a real stage again! Going again tonight.

I think perhaps you better both... GET LOST!

Feeling: Happy

2010/02/04

Many Christians want atheists out of America. Well, what would happen if that were the case?

Two recaps on stories I posted about before. The motivational speaker who caused the death of three people and
hospitalized 18 others was charged with manslaughter. It turns out that forcing your clients to remain in sweat lodges in order to help them grow spiritually and financially (after charging them over $9,000), is actually
irresponsible. This guy was promoting his methods on Oprah and Larry King, but I doubt they will retract those shows. The second story is the Oregon couple that
killed their son by refusing to take him to a doctor after he couldn't urinate. The child died an extremely painful death of
kidney failure, having never once seen a doctor because his parents were quite sure that their prayers to God would heal him. The couple was convicted of criminally negligent homicide.

An anti-evolution bill in the state of Mississippi was nothing to do with the protest!

Normally, I don't like to give Rush Limbaugh any more attention than he already gets, but this clip of him is especially telling. Here, he claims that global
warming couldn't possibly exist, because God would never give humans the ability to destroy our environment. Apparently, God won't let us cut down entire forests and wipe out entire species, nope, can't happen! This
viewpoint is actually not that uncommon in Christian rhetoric. Limbaugh goes on to say that the tons of carbon that we're introducing into our atmosphere is actually beneficial to the environment, because plants breathe
carbon dioxide. He, of course, ignores the massive amount of pollutants that go up with the burning of fossil fuels, the greenhouse effect that a carbon-rich atmosphere causes, and doesn't seem to realize that HUMANS
AREN'T PLANTS!

I've discovered two nice utilities for Windows, Shell Ex View and File Type Manager. Together,
they give you means to clean up all your context menus and clear out all those annoying programs that you never use.

We get to rehearse tonight on the actual stage that we'll be performing on! I can't wait!

The mass overdose of homeopathic medicine 10:23 campaign went off without a hitch. Over 400 skeptics took more than the suggested amount of homeopathic
pills, and yet, oddly enough, none of them had any ill effects whatsoever. This was to protest the UK pharmaceutical chain Boots, who sells and promotes homeopathic preparations even though they admit that they don't
work, but they they sell them because their customers believe they do.

The new call is that corporations should receive the same first amendment rights as people. Thus, they may spend billions promoting political candidates. I can't wait to
see the results.

For those of you who live in the area and are a little on the alt side, you sould come see me playing the role of Riff Raff in the Rocky Horror Picture Show from Feb. 12th-14th. See this
flier for more details.

Brain teaser: Jack is looking at Anne but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person? Yes / No / Cannot be determined.

The Lancet, original publisher of the Wakefield MMR study, has just issued a full retraction of the study that linked
autism to the MMR vaccination. So far, the aftermath has been that several tests have failed to reproduce the results of Wakefield's test, Wakefield himself was discredited and will likely be brought up on charges, the
fear of the vaccination has caused measles outbreaks to infect thousands, some resulting in death, and autism wasn't affected one way or the other. Anti-vaxers will no doubt that this retraction as just another sign that
our government is trying to hide the truth about the secret mind-control devices hidden in the vaccine hypodermics.

More rehearsal tonight!

But maybe the rain, isn't really to blame...No, Sue's to blame! Didn't you read the credits?

Feeling: Cold Sore

2010/02/02

I played lots of DDR last night. I also finally had a free night to do some laundry. I'm still about four loads behind with the hectic schedule! Also, not being able to sleep is good for Rocky practice. From 1-2 AM I
was going over my steps and visualizing all of my moves during the dialog.

Another study has been released that demonstrates how herbs like ginko bilobo and St. John's wort interfere with heart medication.

For those of you who live in the area and are a little on the alt side, you sould come see me playing the role of Riff Raff in the Rocky Horror Picture Show from Feb. 12th-14th. See this
flier for more details.

Happy birthday shout out to my mother!

I see you shiver with antici... pation!

Feeling: Cold Sore

2010/02/01

I had a pretty awesome weekend. Friday night I hung out with Nichole, whom I haven't seen in, like, forever! We watched Rocky Horror Picture Show, ate turkey chili, and I attempted to fix her sad dried up husk of a
computer.

Saturday, I headed down to Detroit to visit the DIA with Emily. I totally fell in love with the Dutch Golden Age, a
movement I knew almost nothing about. I also ranted about how awful contemporary art can be. I'll give you an example, a work created by Kazimir Malevich sold for $1,000,000. It is titled "Black Square". Can you guess
what it looks like? It's a friggin black square! One MILLION dollars people! That is an insult to any art that requires more than
a preschooler's skill level.

Later that evening, I went to Rocky rehearsal where things are really shaping up. Sunday afternoon was spent buying panties, high heels, and fishnets with some other cast members, then more DDR, then I watched the
Flint City Derby Girls play an exhibition game between Vehicle City Vixens and the Heartbreak Hustlers. It was an very close and exciting game, and Lexie Pro (AKA
Jackie) took MVP!

Scott Roeder, was found guilty of murder, and will probably get the first 50 years without parole. This is because Roeder snuck up on Doctor George Tiller, pointed a gun to the back of his head, and shot him in front of
several witnesses. Roeder claims that he murdered the doctor to prevent abortions and save the lives of babies. Because of his sincere convictions, the defense tried to get him a manslaughter charge, but the judge decided
against it, and a jury needed a mere 37 minutes to declare him guilty of murder. Roeder is an example of someone who truly believes that abortion is murder. If other pro-life people really believed abortion is the exact
same as murder, they should be just like him. Think about it--what would you do if you actually saw a person murdering 2-year-olds? If you're like most people, you would run to the rescue and fight off the murderer with
violent force. What you wouldn't do it put a bumper sticker on your car and write a letter to your senator. Most pro-life people don't murder doctors because they recognize that abortion is not the same as murder, even if
they're not willing to admit it.

Science bless the doctors who created acyclovir. My cold sores are smaller and heal up faster. 4 weeks of healing is now one week!

10 Christians were arrested in Haiti for trying to take 33 orphans out of Haiti with them. For centuries, Haitian children have been abducted and sold
off as part of the slave and sex trades. The Christians claimed to have the best intentions in mind, like getting those children away from their own Satanic Voodoo culture and getting a bible in their hands. Thus, I made
this comic.